James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

I'm excited to let you know that we're developing a new app called "The Living Sketchbook™."

It's new technology that lets you experience one of my sketchbooks on your smart phone or tablet (Android or iOS).

You will be able to:
• Explore every single page in high resolution with pinch-to-zoom interactivity.
• Listen to voiceover describing the details of brushes, paints, and technique.
• Hear the actual sounds recorded while the paintings were completed.
• Watch videos of some of the images actually being painted.

We looked around, and there was no existing authoring software that could give us the tools we needed to create this app. So my son Dan Gurney wrote the app code from the ground up. We've created a custom multimedia experience that's unlike anything out there.

Right now we're looking for a very small number of beta testers. If you'd like to be considered as an app tester—EDIT: Sorry, we've already had far more than enough applications. Once this initial test phase is over, we'll release the app to everyone before the end of the month.

Peter Drubetskoy said...So, I've tried this a couple of times and had trouble. Even when the transparent watercolor layer is dry, the top layer of gouache, while looking OK on application, dries to a kind of grey semi-transparent layer - almost never to an opaque white layer, I found that white charcoal pencil works better for me, (but again, the watercolor needs to be dry-dry for it to work) One caveat is that I use dried gouache that I re-wet, not fresh from the tube. But then if I want to use this technique on the go, I prefer to have dried pans of gouache instead of carrying tubes. Do you have any advise here?

Fabio Porta said...I usually have the same issue with gouache, and am virtually unable to lay white gouache on top of darker layers, as it gets too transparent. If I make it thicker, it's harder to lay down, so I guess it should be about finding a good balance?

Peter and Fabio, here are a few tips to get those white highlights whiter:
1. Use titanium instead of zinc white.
2. Use tube paint, not pan colors.
3. If the paint comes out of the tube runny, squeeze it out on absorbent paper first to make it drier.
4. Make sure the surface you're painting over is totally dry.
5. Don't scrub. Just put it down and leave it.
6. Use a thick impasto. For that you may need a stiffer brush.
7. You can push it into the paint to build up the blob of paint on the brush.

"While little known today, during his lifetime W. Heath Robinson (1872 -1944) was ranked with Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac as one of England’s foremost illustrators. Beginning in the 1890s Robinson developed a linear style that looks back to the innovations of the Pre-Raphaelite illustrators and forward to the art nouveau creations of Aubrey Beardsley and others. He illustrated a broad range of texts, including William Shakespeare, Rudyard Kipling, and the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, in addition to children’s books he wrote himself. He is best remembered today for his humorous depictions of Rube Goldberg-like contraptions and gentle satires of contemporary life."

Friday, February 24, 2017

Step 1: Research. I study the scientist's papers, look at photos of the fossils, and compare animals in our world that might serve as analogues.

Anchiornis sketches

Step 2: Thumbnails. I sketch these preliminarieswith watercolor, gouache, colored pencil and fountain pen. I do these from imagination, pretending I'm watching the animals go through a series of actions. What is the moment to capture?

On some level I'm also aware of 2D design issues, but I'm really trying to project myself into the moment. I try to think of my sketch as a window rather than a piece of paper.

Sometimes the first sketch is the best. Sometimes a discovery happens later. You will never know until you try a lot of variations. I don't get too attached to any of them.

Step 3. Once the art director and I agree on the best sketch, I try to recreate in physical form the conditions of the sketch, to see if it works out spatially and dimensionally.

This stage is where all the unexpected surprises arrive to add conviction to the idea—for example the dappled light on the tree and the cast shadow on the visible foot.

Step 4. Then it's on to the finish in oil. Check out the video below if you haven't seen it already.

Step 5. Make a Documentary Video. It's the age of social media, so there's more work to do. Creating a video is the final part of the job. Of course it's not officially commissioned. There's no budget for making a behind-the-scenes video. An outside crew could never get the personal angle that the artist himself or herself can get.

It appears in Ranger Rick, a magazine dominated by wildlife photography. So I blur the background to suggest depth of field. I spotlight the action with an area of soft dappled light cast from the tree behind us.

I make the paper-over-wire maquette by photocopying a flat plan drawing of the animal two times onto card stock. Then I make a glue sandwich with aluminum armature wire in the place of the bones. Then I bulk up the maquette with epoxy putty.

Here's an 8 minute video on YouTube of all three dinosaur paintings for the March issue of Ranger Rick Magazine.

My sketches are in gouache, which gives a quick impression that I can show to the art director of Ranger Rick Magazine, where the illustrations appear in the March 2017 issue.

I make a new maquette because none of my existing dinosaur maquettes are in this pose. The head looks big because of camera distortion.

The sculpt is made with a 2-part epoxy called Magic Sculpt over a core of Sculpey. I use aluminum wire for the armature. (Thanks, Clayton) Even though the maquette doesn't have a feathery surface, the big planes are clear, so I can light it and have a sense of light and shadow.

Monday, February 20, 2017

The set-up for shooting flyovers is all home made. The camera is suspended from a Lego cart (tires removed). That cart rolls on two dollar-store metal broomsticks, pulled by a geared down Lego motor. Smoke machine is off to the right.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

I painted this view of Hotel Catalina about 35 years ago. The layers of paint are fairly thinly applied on a panel that was pre-primed with a warm acrylic ground. For the window details, I used a 1/4 inch synthetic flat brush, using Liquin for the medium.

Friday, February 17, 2017

When you're painting in oil, it's possible to lay down light shapes over dark ones while the dark under-layer is still wet. But to do that, you've got to keep the under-layer thin and not too wet.

That's how I painted the white stripes on this bongo. I was lucky that at this antelope at a zoo was resting long enough for me to paint this study (about 45 minutes).

Over a tinted Venetian red priming, I lightly painted the brown body without the stripes. I used a small amount of Liquin as my medium, with white synthetic flat brush for the brushes. I then painted the stripes on top of the wet paint, and they came off the brush without disturbing the layers beneath.

Having slightly wet paint can actually improve the handling of subsequent strokes, and that's why people oil out when they're going back into a dry painting.
----
Previously: What is oiling out?

Thursday, February 16, 2017

"Illustrator James Gurney offers a guide to a much-underrated medium — but there's creative gold inside for any artist.

"Partway through this video, the latest in James Gurney's series showing how to use different media in outdoor painting sessions, the illustrator explains that casein may not be as ubiquitous in the artist's arsenal as watercolour or gouache, but it's a very effective medium. Like acrylic, you can apply casein in thin washes or as thick, opaque daubs, making it a versatile choice when you don't want to carry too much around.

"In the 74 minute video, James presents seven sketchbook projects where he relied on casein to get the job done, as part of his continual work to gather reference on the interaction of light and the natural world. As the camera follows him from a picturesque Catskills mountain stream through a Wyoming horse ranch and into the main street of a small Colorado town, you'll see how James uses casein's properties to capture each scene with great efficiency.

"His approach is pragmatic, placing the paint in service to his concept. Sometimes he records the scene as he sees it. Sometimes he uses his surroundings as raw material for an idea he wants to explore, as in the project where a mundane roadside scene becomes a shimmering contre-jour light show.

"It's this down-to-earth attitude to his materials that always makes James worth watching, even if you're rather be painting on your iPad. Whether by coincidence or design, there's a broad theme of simplifying complexity running through these projects. As James paints a boat workshop, for example, he focuses on colour temperatures and values to make sense of the many overlapping forms. You'll see in a couple of other projects, meanwhile, how he constructs his initial sketches to ensure the proportions are correct. Whatever your preferred medium, an hour and a quarter in James's company is time well spent."
-----DVDCasein Painting in the Wild DVD direct from manufacturerCasein Painting in the Wild DVD on Amazon
(74 minutes NTSC Region 1 North America)...............$24.50DownloadCasein Painting in the Wild from Gumroad and SellfyBuy now (HD MP4).........$14.95

Monday, February 13, 2017

If the Atlanta Cyclorama were laid out flat, it would be one of the largest paintings in the world: 40 feet tall and longer than a football field.

When properly displayed in its cylindrical format, it's a wraparound experience akin to virtual reality, Small sculpted figures in the foreground to add to the illusion.

According to the New York Times, the painting "was prepared in Milwaukee by a team of German artists and was completed in 1886, when cycloramas...were a leading form of entertainment, and the colossal works traveled the country."

But over the years, it has fallen into neglect. Fortunately $35 million has been raised to restore it and to move it to a new home.

Saturday, February 11, 2017

"I'm working on a long-term, multi-faceted project that is very close to me. It has the estimated size to the Marvel Universe of comics and is in illustrated novel format. Right now my brother and I have a seed of this project that has sprouted for over a decade.

"Only recently have I started to practice art academically, feeling the necessity to do so, to share this story with the world in the way I'd like it to be. I don't feel I can halt the creation of the story, but hesitate to finish even the first pages when knowing how much I can improve and how good the project could be (when I am better).

"Perfectionism. This is a lifetime of work, but I would like to ask if you look back on personal projects, like Dinotopia, and feel you published them too early, before you had enough skill, or waited too long believing you weren't ready to make something?"

Anthony, you raise a question shared by anyone who conceives of a big idea: 'Am I ready to announce this thing to the world, or should I develop it longer and improve it?'

On the one hand you might want to resist announcing. While an idea is held back from the world and allowed to grow in your head, all changes are possible. As your artistic skills and experience grow, your conception and your expression can develop as well. Announcing it risks that someone else might run away with the idea and go to the public with it first.

If you feel a need to keep your development unadulterated by exposure, you might want to set a time limit on that period. Keep in mind that an idea is always perfect before it is expressed. The very act of committing it to a particular form diminishes it, regardless of your level of ability. Don't worry about that. That's the nature of art.

Beginning to share your idea has advantages. You can test your expression with real audiences and see whether it holds up. People appreciate being invited into your creative vortex. You can plant your flag on in the sand and claim the territory for your grand idea. Maybe there's a piece of what you've got that you can put out there.

Putting it to the public test can help you sort priorities. Maybe your idea is a dud. How will you know unless you try it out with real people?

Remember that life is not a rehearsal. This is it! Your life clock is ticking. At some point you've got to plant your seed and let it grow.

The Marvel Universe didn't start out with a grand plan delivered by polished talent. (Neither did Dinotopia.) Brahms waited a long time to write his first symphony because everyone expected it would be as good as Beethoven's Ninth. But once he put the first symphony out there, the next three came more easily.

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now."Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe